I made a pair of panel speakers (a.k.a. distributed mode loudspeakers) recently—they sound fantastic, take up almost no space being only slightly away from the wall, look like sleek fabric acoustic panels rather than bookshelf speakers on the wall, and were pretty darn cheap (~$65 for the pair with dual exciters on each). I’m still in the process of hanging them properly as my rear LR, as they’re only 2 ft squares. I want to create a pair of 2 ft × 4.5 ft panels for my front LR which should sound even bigger and fuller, especially after a little EQ magic. Even just a single panel in a room though would be pretty good.

I also got a baby bass shaker to put under the couch for movie oomph; you could go for a normal sub too if you feel the low end needs more, but try just the panels first.

I really want to do a writeup of the discoveries I’ve made once I’m done; my background and degree are in audio engineering so I’ve done a lot of research and testing. To start, I recommend using Dayton’s “high roll” exciters, I like their sound better. My panels each have one of these and one of these.

References:

• Video: Introduction
• Video: How To Build
• Video: Testing Further Improvements
• Article: Exciters Guide